Fall has arrived and with it, the pumpkin season. There are always plenty of pumpkins to carve up around Halloween time and a great way to make use of the pumpkin seeds is to roast them for an easy, healthy snack.

I love to eat them shells and all. If they're properly toasted and are small to medium sized, they are wonderfully crunchy and easy to eat.

Did your father ever tell you that when "he was a kid, he walked 10 miles to school everyday, barefoot, in the snow"? My dad did, and I believed him for years. He was from Minnesota; they had snow there. We lived in LA—palm trees, no snow. How was I to know?

We grew up with hearty soups, even though in Los Angeles there was maybe one month a year when it really made sense to eat them.

Have you ever had sweet potato pie? It's the Landcruiser of holiday pies. Heavy, dense, feeds many. Similar in some respects to a pumpkin pie, but whereas pumpkin pie is all about the spices, sweet potato pie is all about the sweet potato.

You can actually taste the wonderful flavor of sweet potato in this pie, which is only enhanced, not supplanted by the additions of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla.

"London Broil" used to be a way of describing a method for cooking lean beef cuts such as flank or top round, which originally was to pan-fry it quickly on medium high to high heat, cook it only to medium rare, and then slice it thinly on the diagonal.

The term has since evolved to a method of marinating, and then either grilling or broiling the steak. Furthermore butchers now sell a cut of beef that is called a London Broil which is typically a couple inches thick and is top round.

Come fall, one of our favorite things to make with the apples and walnuts from our trees is a Waldorf salad. Here's a fresh take on this American classic—a kale version. In it we have subbed in kale for the lettuce, dried cranberries for the grapes, and hold everything together with a tangy mayo dressing.

You know the easiest way to make a simple roast chicken something worthy of fancy dinner party? Glaze it in the last few minutes of roasting with a little melted apricot preserves. It will make you look like a master chef!

Every fall, when the days get shorter and the nights colder, at some point I reluctantly give up wearing shorts and flips flops. Did you know there are only two real seasons here in Sacramento? Flip flop and shorts season, and jeans and socks season.

It's when your feet tell you, "Hey put on some socks!" that you know autumn has truly arrived. That's when the soup pot comes out and you look forward to filling it with something warm and comforting.

It's still flip-flop season here, at least during the day, but the chilly weather will be coming soon (if not already where you are). So we're cooking up new soup recipes.

The concept is simple—a quick, basic chicken salad that uses mashed avocado as a binder instead of the more traditional mayonnaise.

That was my idea as I set out to repeat the success we had with our Avocado Tuna Salad. It would be a "sequel" of sorts, hopefully a sequel more like Toy Story 2 (brilliant!) than the second Bridget Jones (yikes).

Do you like broccoli? I LOVE, seriously love broccoli. Favorite way to eat it? Steamed, served with a little mayo.

I wish more people shared my enthusiasm.

If you are in the not-so-sure-about-broccoli camp, or are cooking for someone who needs to eat more vegetables but is less than enthused at the prospect, this is the recipe for you.

What's the one thing that makes broccoli taste great? Cheddar cheese. It's one of those power combos, hard to go wrong. Just check out our Broccoli Cheddar Casserole, or our Broccoli Cheddar Mac n Cheese. (Black pepper is the other thing that broccoli loves, so make sure to add plenty.)